Easier said than done I know. But the idea of letting it go is actually harder than forgetting about it.

There are actually simple and practical ways that you can put your past behind you. You just don’t ever think to do it because you’re too busy dissecting it to think about letting it go.

Think about all you can accomplish if you took the time and energy you spent on it picking apart your past and used it to paste together your future.

Remember these the next time you find yourself dissecting your past like a frog in biology class.

1. Just accept it

Many people have a hard time overcoming their past because they’re unhappy with the choices that they made.

They can’t believe they let that happen. They don’t know what they were thinking when they did this. Or, they beat themselves up about not having the information they have now then.

The fact of the matter is it’s over and done with. You can’t turn back time and change what happen in the past. So just let it go.

Accept what happened. Face the music and try to do better the next time around.

It’s pretty much the only option you have.

2. Accepting your lack of understanding

You know how they say hindsight is 20/20, right? Well there are going to be a number of things from your past that hindsight will not make sense of.

No matter how many times you review every detail it’s still going to baffle you. You may even end up scratching a hole into your head. Some things can’t be understood or explained.

Accept the confusion. Accept that you just don’t get it.

You don’t have to understand everything single thing that happened to you in order to move on.

Hey, maybe one day it’ll hit you and it’ll all make sense. Or maybe it won’t. At this point it doesn’t matter.

Carry on.

3. Appreciate who you’ve become

Come on, look at you. You know you’re pretty awesome. Sure you probably have some things to improve but who doesn’t. Besides, you’re still pretty cool.

And you know how you came to be so cool? Because everything that you’ve been through has shaped you.

Your accomplishments, your screw ups, the highs and lows, ups and downs all helped to make you who you are today.

Even though there are parts of your life that you may not be proud of those parts helped you to sort things out. You got to learn about yourself and what to work towards.

Besides, you’re so much more than the bad experiences you’ve been through. After all, you got through them, so that says a lot.

4. Look for the lessons

There is something to be learned from everything, I mean everything. Especially your mistakes.

When you can’t help but to pick apart the pieces of your past, take that opportunity to figure out what you can take away from it.

Ask yourself what you learned from the experience, what you can use to improve it if it were to happen again.

5. Get help

This seems obvious but a lot of people don’t do it. And I’m not even talking about getting a therapist, but maybe just another perspective.

Talk to a good friend or someone who can give you helpful insight from an unbiased point of view.

Because it’s different it can be a little difficult at first to accept it, figure out the lesson and move on. But when someone else can help you sort through the muddle it will become easier to take in.

6. Let it go, physically

I know, I know, it sounds crazy like how can you physically let go of the past. It’s not tangible but it doesn’t have to be.

There are so many different ways you can push something like that away from you in the physical form through a releasing ceremony.

People release things that are weighing them down by lighting sky lanterns and releasing them into the atmosphere.

Others write down on a piece of paper, review it then throw it into a fire pit or fire place to watch it burn.

You can even use a little boat made out of flowers or a lantern, drop it into a body of water and let it float away.

It’s a liberating and new way of putting your past behind you, watching something move away from you. Sometimes seeing that happen is helpful when it comes time to do it mentally.

Freeing Yourself

While looking to your past is a good way to learn from it and prevent history from repeating itself. It can become harmful when you over analyze it and don’t let go.

When you’re used to ripping yourself and your past to shreds it can seem impossible to leave things in the past but you can.

Remember you don’t need to understand every bit of it to tackle the road ahead. And you shouldn’t rob yourself of a future by focusing on the past.

Just take what you need or find useful from the past and put it behind you.

It’s like when you’re driving a car. You look in your review mirror here and there but you can’t effectively drive forward when you’re constantly looking behind you.

Free yourself of the shackles of the past. Keep your eyes forward and keep moving in that direction.

Tell me…

What part of your past still bugs you and which strategy are you going to apply to it?

Lea is a certified life coach, foodie and lifehack expert. Don’t end up like the millions of people who gave up on their dreams, get unstuck and to the next level. Take the eye-opening Live Your Dreams course now to get moving!

I have a couple things from my past that I think about from time to time. I have played the what if scenario so much that for a while it was eating me alive. Recently I’ve been able to accept it and move on. It wasn’t easy at first but the more I push myself the more I feel better about the situation.

What a great post. I have been a person who rips their past to shreds and dissects experiences like the frog in the science lab. However I have found I can only do it for so long before it becomes a broken record. There is only so much I can do with, but regardless of how much reflection goes on there the facts of the matter can’t be changed.

When I do visit the past I bring it to my consciousness and appreciate the reminder but am gentle on myself. Not too much time is required there anymore. I learnt to work on the solution rather than remain stuck on the situation.

And that hind sight, you speak of; if that were a person – well lets say we would not be friends – it is like a told you so to some degree and nobody likes that. Thanks for a reminder of where the past should remain.

Great advice! The past is the past, so if we live in it we are stuck! I only like to use the past as a measurement of where I am today. Some past experiences were not so good, but taught me the biggest lessons of my life.

Living today is all we have. With that mindset, we can do the best we can each and every day. Well, that’s what I truly believe.

When we free ourselves from the past dangling in our minds, it is the best feeling of all. I have to say that #5 is the most important of all….Get Help! It all depends on the degree of how the past is haunting you. Just by doing that one tiny step can bring peace and freedom to our lives.

Thanks. I wanted to make sure people understood that I wasn’t saying to ditch it completely, just not to become fixated on it.

I know, I was there too. The idea of letting go can seem absurd but when you really think about how it’s hindering you you’d be crazy not to do it.

Thanks for commenting. Hope you’re in a much better place and continuing to progress.

~Lea

Lea

Welcome to the Leading Edge, I'm Lea. Here is where you'll find the support you need to get over the roadblocks and live the life that only seemed possible in your dreams. It may seem far fetched now but believe me it's not. I'm living proof! Read More…